Epic Spacewalk To Replace Cooling Equipment On ISS Goes Well

The degraded pump module as seen from the helmet cam of Rick Mastracchio.

NASA

Originally published on December 21, 2013 6:31 pm

Updated 6 p.m. ET

NASA reports that things went well in Saturday's 5-1/2-hour spacewalk, with two American astronauts removing a pump from the International Space Station Saturday in an effort to repair a faulty piece of cooling equipment.

Astronauts Michael Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio completed more of the fixes in less time than had been anticipated.

A second spacewalk is scheduled for Monday. Veteran space reporter William Harwood at CBS News reports: "Given how far ahead of the timeline the crew got, flight controllers are still hopeful the astronauts can complete the pump swap out Monday, avoiding a third spacewalk on Christmas Day."

(Original post below)

We're about half-way through what is expected to be an epic 6 1/2-hour space walk today on the International Space Station.